I wrapped up my week last week with two really dynamite days —
a Young Authors’ Conference at one school and a reading at another.
During which the following facts were confirmed:
Kids are funny.
And brilliant.
Teachers are generous.
And patient.
Librarians are passionate.
And kind.
All in all, that’s a pretty good bunch of folks to run with, don’t you think?
Highlights include, from the Young Author’s Day, the following kid-written lines:
"I could fit into a small square box."
"Today tastes like candy."
and "Anger is like a long, long line."
And from the reading?
Oh, mercy me.
Two girls came up to me afterwards — second graders, one of whom was missing her two front teeth — and asked if they could perform for a moment. And they stood there in the gymnasium, not 24 inches from me, and sang the entire text of All the World, a cappella. It was beautiful.
And then we had a three day weekend.
Really.
Does it get any better?
Those of you who read my blog, even infrequently,
have heard stories about my children’s elementary school.
It’s just a mile up the road and we ride our bikes there — even on days like today when the windchill’s in the 20s and we have to wear face masks under our helmets. Mr. Gus-the-Crossing-Guard holds traffic, the kids call out to all their friends, and the bell rings. Which is when the fun begins.
Over the years, my daughters have learned to read there, and to multiply and divide.
They have tie-dyed shirts and baked bread and performed Shakespeare.
They have mastered the monkey bars and met authors and collected Pennies for Peace.
They have walked to the neighborhood nursing home and fire station.
They have written their autobiographies.
They have made friends who speak Spanish and Sign Language.
They have made dioramas and mobiles and iMovies.
They have made music and murals.
They have recycled and composted and gardened.
They have run marathons, one mile at a time.
They have learned in classrooms full of children who are shy, smart, autistic, artistic, enthusiastic, tentative, funny, sensitive, wry. They have learned from teachers who are thoughtful, gutsy, dedicated, creative, resourceful, tender and true.
And we (and by we I mean the collective We, not just my husband and I), we have read aloud in their classrooms and tutored math groups and helped hang art. We have painted walls and repaired fences and planted sage and salvia. We have practiced yoga and re-shelved books and helped keep the lunchroom kind of sane. We have sat on committees and sold pizza and set up movie screens. We have happily, and with deep trust and gratitude, delivered our children here day after day after day. For over 60 years, if you’re really counting the collective We.
And now, thanks to a budget crisis that is part of the larger American economic tumbleweed, our district is threatening to close this school and eight others. They’re threatening to close schools that are public and that work — a two-fer that not many folks even believe in anymore.
There is a firestorm brewing, of course.
There is a petition and a facebook page.
There is a steering committee and a twitter feed.
And there are more than 500 children, at our school alone, who have every right to believe that we’re looking out for them, for their best interests and for their whole selves, because that’s what we as grown-ups promise to do.
Just a little reminder, folks, that The Cybils finalists have been announced and there is some fine reading at hand!
The Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) recognize a whole slew of categories and they do it really well and thoughtfully — with online nominations, two round of careful, committee-based judging, and a Valentine’s Day announcement of literary love!
But really, why wait ’til Valentine’s Day to read the winners when you could start finding your way through all the finalists right now? For example, and apropos of Poetry Friday, these:
Borrowed Names: Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters, by Jeannine Atkins Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, by Joyce Sidman Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, by Marilyn Singer Scarum Fair, by Jessica Swaim Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems, ed. by Lee Bennett Hopkins Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems, ed. by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors, by Joyce Sidman
You may (or may not) have noticed that I slipped away from here, sometime between Gratitude 20 and New Year’s Day. I unplugged in a big, wallowy, snowy way.
But that’s not to say I forgot to count my blessings. This may be cheating but I’ve been writing them down and will share them now. I’m too lucky not to.
21. SONG. This morning (December 21st) I joined a circle of women on the top of a small hill under a cold sky to sing in the solstice. It was hypothetical since the clouds obscured the sunrise — like they had the full lunar eclipse last night, but we sang anyway and everyone lightened, visibly, before heading off to work or back to family or, in our case, to the airport. Song will do that to a day.
22. FLEXIBILITY. Not every travel day goes as planned. I am grateful for the flexibility I find in my children, my husband, my drivers to (and from and to) the airport, our housesitter and even, yes, the ticket agents. We didn’t get there the way we wanted or the day we wanted. But we got there.
23. MY SISTER. This could be a very, very long entry but suffice it to say that I miss having my sister in my daily life Every Single Day — I have ever since college, and especially when she lived oceans and time zones away from me. So when I am ensconsed with her — anywhere — things are just a little bit righter in my world. Which is how it is this morning, in her house in Montana, our children sound asleep together, the coffee in the french pot brewing, and she and I laughing together, mopping and sweeping up after the huge and entire Christmas tree came crashing down. I mean, I’m not grateful for that part (although a blessedly few number of ornaments broke), but just for being with her and her humor and her patience and her ideas and her perspective. The tree’s back up and beautiful and we have more than a week unrolling in front of us…
24. MY PARENTS. Back in the day, my mom and dad were pretty sweet skiers. They paid for season ski passes what folks now pay for daily tickets, and they set us up on rope tows when we were barely two. They skied with us, but they also skied the bowls and the steeps, the bumps and the powder. And then costs went crazy and lines grew long and my mom and dad moved to the midwest, where they cross country ski. Today, after about 20 years, they buckled up again to spend Christmas eve on the slopes with their daughters and sons-in-law and four fearless grandchildren. They are brave and spontaneous and spirited and fun-loving. And really, really sweet skiers.
25. MY DAUGHTERS. Nothing against grown ups, but waking up with kids on Christmas is really beyond compare. Anticipation and surprise swirl together into one big giddy holiday milkshake — it’d take a cold, hard heart not to want to lap it up. What’s new, though, is how deeply excited my girls are to give their gifts. Not that they don’t rip off paper with the best of them, but it was when their dad was opening his camping sink and egg container, and their grandmother her hand-sewn apron, and their auntie her only-half-finished hand-knit scarf, that they were wide-eyed and fist-clenched and on-the-edge-of-their-seats with delight. With kids like this, who needs presents?
26. MY HUSBAND. Again with the this-could-be-a-very-long entry, but this year my gratitude for my partner is a little sweeter and keener and more crystallized than ever before. Since his cancer diagnosis nine months ago, he has faced every darkness in the corner and monster under the bed. And he has faced them with his own steady strength — somehow both patient and perseverant — so much so that he served as a comfort to those of us feeling scared and none-too-steady. And now he’s alive and well and treating me to a boxing day massage and I am grateful.
27. HEALERS & CAREGIVERS. Speaking of my husband, I am eternally grateful for the love and care and science he’s been offered this year. I’m grateful for our decisive surgeon and aggressive oncologist, for our big-picture nutritionist and tender radiologist. I am grateful for the oral surgeon and massage therapist, for the nurses and technicians and home health care folks, for the swallowing therapist and the lymphedema therapist. I am grateful that we were able to trust them and that they saw us straight through and beyond the treacherous days.
28. WONDERS & WORRIES. And speaking of healers & caregivers, I am deeply grateful to the good folks at Wonders & Worries who held my hands and my daughters’ hands during this crazy journey. It is what they do. They tend to the emotional lives of children whose parents are very, very ill. They are calm and straight-forward and kid-centered and they help kids transcend the tough stuff by being in the tough stuff. They are just flat-out goodness.
29. WILDERNESS. Today we cross-country skied into a shabby little Forest Service cabin in the woods and warmed our stew on the very hot wood stove and played cards by propane lantern and now the sun’s gone dark and it’s time for bed. We live in a busy, crowded world but thanks to the wisdom and foresight of good and thoughtful people there are still pockets — some really big and beautiful pockets — of wildness. For which I’m grateful.
30. MY FRIENDS. As we pack our bags for home, I start to think about what I’m heading back to. Our house, our pets, our town. And mostly, our friends. We have been doled out more than our fair share of friends. In Austin. And all around the world. They just always seem to be at the ready for fun, companionship, help, advice, commiseration, cheer. I could be forgiven for thinking it’d all be a little bit impossible without you all….
31. MY AGENT, MY EDITORS, MY ILLUSTRATORS. We’re home and tomorrow’s a new day. A new year, technically. I love vacation but I love getting back to the work I love, too. I often talk to school kids about what it is to work at home, alone, with my slippers, my dog, my cup of tea. It is both a hard and a beautiful thing, I tell them. But I have a feeling the hard might outweigh the beauty if it weren’t for the fact that I’m not actually at home alone. I have the distinct honor and luck to make books with thoughtful, brilliant, funny, wildly creative folks and I am grateful and oh-so-happy to look ahead at another year of just that.
And for any of you who may actually have plowed through this rather long and cumbersome list of luckiness? I’m really grateful for you, too. What a world we have and are.
17. Winter weather in Austin is something to be thankful for. I grew up in a lot of snow. Multiple feet of snow. We loved it. But I’ve grown to really deeply appreciate this kind of winter, too. Perfect running weather. Perfect jump-on-the-tramp weather. Perfect chilly-in-the-morning and gorgeous-by-noon weather. Grab-a-sweatshirt-and-that’ll-do-it weather. Thankful for that…
18. We got lucky in the neighbor department. Our street is full of little kids, but also retirees and widows, single folks, empty nesters. And we all mix and mingle — often actually in the street. And there is a flow of loaners and hand-me-downs, favors and stories. Everyone genuinely likes each other, and likes each other’s pets (even our maladjusted second cat), and likes each other Christmas lights. It’s a great comfort to know that so many people in one small little block have your back.
19. I am grateful for good books. Currently, Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, but I couldn’t even begin to narrow the list of the zillion-and-one reading pleasures I’ve experienced in my life — on my own, shared with my mom and dad when I was a kid, and shared with my own kids now. (Currently, Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman). OK, so I fall asleep with my face in the pages sometimes, but the authors shouldn’t take it personally. There are days when a good book is the high point. Heck, there are days when a good book is the WHOLE point…
20. And since gal cannot live on books alone, I am deeply grateful to my children for being my technology gurus, even if they do download annoying ringtones, wallpapers and inappropriate bodily function apps. The crazy laughter diffuses my mood and prevents me from hurling phones and laptops off a bridge. Thanks, girls
Confession. While feeling profoundly grateful every day for a zillion and thirteen things, I totally dropped the blogging ball this week. Sorry. And thank you.
Scurrying to make up for lost time, here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about…
12. It can be kind of a pain in the arse to be a grown up sometimes (see: bills, laundry, car maintenance) but really, I’m grateful for the free will that comes along with it (not to be confused with actual control over life — I’m not that delusional). Most days I actually like making up the structure of my own day, deciding what to work on and what to let simmer. I like taking an hour out of my work day to do yoga with the 4th graders, to meet another writer for coffee, to talk to my sister on the phone. I’m grateful for all of this freedom, and I’m grateful for my work and my husband, the two-fer combo that together make my daily life self-determined and pretty swell.
13. I did my last school visit of the calendar year this week and oh, I am so grateful for school visits. There is the fact that they serve as a supplement to a highly erratic and unpredictable writer’s income, but honestly (and I’m not being all starry-eyed simpleton here) I just love the kids. They are so eager. And earnest. And funny. And I have never visited a school and not been told, often in hushed tones, "Miss? I am an author, too." I come home very, very tired but exhilarated and inspired, too.
14. I love vacation. I love when my kids are on vacation. I love not setting alarms. I love not packing lunches. I love letting everyone stay up a little too late. I love days that are loosey-goosey and either fly by or seem to go on forever (in a good way). I am grateful for weekends and holidays and the academic calendar. Very grateful.
15. I’m still kind of slack-jaw-grateful at how my book, All the World, has been received by parents and teachers and librarians and kids everywhere. In the last couple of weeks alone, I’ve heard from a principal in Massachusetts whose school is using All the World for a school-wide bookclub, a librarian in Michigan whose library system is using it for a city reading event, and countless friends and cousins and strangers who are reading the bilingual version while eating their Cheerios. We never know, when we write this or that, what will happen to those words when we put them out there. Mine were paired with the most exquisite art I’ve ever seen and tended to by a brilliant editor and just really, really warmly received. And I’m grateful.
16. And I’m also grateful for National Novel Writing Month — not because I got an entire novel written (I didn’t) or because I love what I did write (I don’t) but because it shook me way up and I wrote out of my (little tiny) box and I need a little of that every now and again. I wish I had it in me to shake myself up but I’m a fan of routine. I like actual ruts, if the truth be told. So I’m grateful for deadlines, for a little external pressure, for NaNo — for keeping me on my toes and wide awake.
I’m grateful all the way down to my toes for the writers who read my work when it’s still bare and bumbling, for the writers who buoy me up when i’m ready to pack it in, for the writers who inspire me through their own work. (Ok, so sometimes I’m not so much inspired as shamed into carrying on, but who cares???!)
At our house, we don’t have to cook on Monday or Wednesday nights.
Those are Dinner Co-op nights, which means that at around 6 pm, the doorbell rings and — ta da — there’s dinner.
Hot, delicious and ready for the table.
(We return the favor on Thursday nights.)
I’m grateful for Dinner Co-op.
It cuts down on the weekly grocery bills.
it cuts down on the after dinner dishes.
And it cuts down, slightly, on the beans and tortillas we’re likely to consume in any given week.
But more importantly, it says, in a really tangible way, that we are still tribal — even in 2010 — that we are still family — even if we’re technically not — and that it takes a village — even in a city.
This weekend was just full of holiday stuff, for which I’m a total sucker.
Tonight, I’m grateful for holiday rituals and traditions:
The sing-along up at school, complete with nearly 500 luminarias, each one hand-cut by a chlld.
The funny little Charley Brown Christmas tree in our living room, bedecked with bells from my godmother, needlepoint stockings from my mom, decorated toilet paper rolls from the girls when they were small.
